"Complex networking (for me anyway)"

now that my keyboard works, the next thing i want to do is set up a mini network. I am only given 1 ethernet port, and i have a desktop and a laptop. Norm, i would just use a router to give both computers access, but my university requires a program called cisco clean access agent. This requires that the first thing connected to the ethernet port be a computer. The desktop has 2 rj45 ports, and the laptop has a wireless and an rj-45 port. I have a belkin wireless router, several rj-45 cables, and a crossover. I have limited experience with networking, and would like to know how i would set up this mess so the desktop is the initial connection to the network, and the laptop connects through the desktop.

Desktop:
win xp mce 05 w/sp2

Laptop:
win xp mce 02 w/sp2

for all i know, clean access agent may have been designed to prevent someone from doing this in addition to its other uses.

With two XP machines, a wired network is so simple and bulletproof that I wouldn't mess with the aggravation of wireless, for now.
Clean Access Agent will not complicate what you are doing.
The critical thing is to have good connectors on the ends of your Cat5e or Cat6 cable, plug it in, go to My Network Places. Read that little package XP comes up with. Don't need a router. You will be setup in 15 minutes if you have never done it before. Beyond two computers, it gets more complex. Connect your printers up like normal. The network will see an use them both.
The aggravation comes later after you begin to believe you are good at it.
You can do wireless now, but why put up with the irritation when you have to have Clean Access Agent.
If you are a student, you don't have enough time to mess with wireless. It isn't as secure, and it doesn't handle Cisco without a lot more learning.

It is too easy. I kept wondering what I did wrong that made it work the first time and everytime. It gave me confidence that ruined me when a tried a my next network with 8 ports, two networked laser printers, and two laptops with proprietary security on them. There is no book that made that easy.

HAHA, you answered my question before i even asked... i was having problems. I did turn off my firewall- nvidia network access manager. but after checking here, i noticed it on again. i couldnt get it to turn off. I would select "off" and the firewall would act like it was disabled for about 3 seconds before turning on again. I couldnt solve this prob quickly, so i just uninstalled it. I am required to have symantec antivirus and firewall anyway. I have not had time to try and setup again...
-thanks

Common at a lot of such institutions nowadays. A major mistake as Symantec is much more dangerous than it is good, in my opinion. The other big contractor is McAfee
But colleges and universities need to have systems for which they can provide support.
Usually, this is done on a bid or contract basis, and the individuals get a healthy price break.

yeah, we get the software for free, but thats expected when you are paying 14000 a semester (before scholarships)... It also turns on ms auto update and tells it to update every day. then it gray out the option to turn it off. the only way i have found to stop it is to disable auto update in services. But back to the issue... i have still not tried again, i plan to get busy on it this weekend.

arrrrrr!!! i got it to work 2x... and i couldnt let it be. I tried to make it work wireless but i just messed it up. now i cant seem to get it to work- i have spent about 3 hours trying to get it to work after it quit the 2nd time. i am running it through the router and cant seem to figure out what is wrong. the second time it worked, i think the router was 10.0.7.100, the laptop was 10.0.7.101, the desktop was 10.0.7.109 (from wall) and 192.168.0.1(going to router). I have tried as many combinations as i see reasonable, i have turned off both firewalls, used ms network setup wizard about 10x, and changed some options in the router several times to no avail. what setup should i have for cables and router? i courrently have cables in the 1 and 2 slot of the router, should the one from the desktop run into the wan port? The router does recognize the desktop in the DHCP Client List as well as the laptop. Should i have manually assigned ip addresses to the computers or let the router do its thing? I am somewhat frustrated and prob did not explain the situation as well as i should have......

HA!!!! I got it to work, and i know it will keep on working... I manually configured everything- the thing that kept on messing me up was that windows wanted to share the connection (from the desktop) on 192.168.0.1 and my internet was 10.0.7.109. the key thing i had to do was to change the gateway AND dns server to 192.168.0.1 (on the laptop) for some reason, i guess i never had both at the desktops network connection. i would always go for 10.0.7.109 (which is the internet connection), and by doing the same thing to the wireless ip setup, i got it to work wirelessly. everything is great and fast <IMG SRC="http://209.59.4.138/discus/clipart/16x16smile.gif" ALT=":-)" BORDER=0>

Thanks for the update and the reminder. Networking is always so frustrating and obtuse until you understand it, then you cannot remember why it was so difficult... and there are so many aspects that it is hard to tell someone else with out writing a book of messages or philosophy.